So what do you do when your dps and your asked to heal?

I've got a problem(i guess). Usually im known to play casually(3hours at a time) with a bit of hardcore every now and then(6hours+). I raided all the way through wotlk and cata i just kind of didn't really care to raid with lfr and not much else to do and bleh about the expansion in general as ele. Anyways, now i feel a little better about raiding and wanted to get into it. I play on a low pop horde server - stormrage and decided to leave my alts in another seperate guild for banking and move my main into a raid/casual guild. Leveled up to 90 quickly geared up to 465 currently got to know some of the guildies usually always top of the meter and help as much as i can with my utility in 5 heroics.. Problem.. the only available spot is to be a healer. I spoke with the raid leader when i signed up via calendar for next week(we went into the raid and messed around but nothing too serious when it first dropped). He tells me to get on vent and asked if i could go resto to help out the raid.

Now im not a selfish person at all but ive always loved ele(moreso now than ever), but it seems i wont get the chance to actually raid with it unless they get another healer then he'd have me dps. But i have a feeling like ive seen many times in the past, that they would expect me to heal every week and i will never get to dps like i intended too.

So i guess im asking the shaman community how do they feel about this? Have you guys had to deal with this? How do you deal with it?

I personally feel i pay for the game monthly and for me to fully enjoy it i should be able to play the spec i want to. But then again i dont want to feel like the 'ass' that doesnt want to contribute to his raid group by any means neccesary. guess im stuck in a rock and a hard place on deciding figured id post here.

1 - Go Resto, make it clear you would prefer to be a DPS but go resto. Make sure your good at it and get yourself a solid raid spot. That way when stuff goes on farm and/or gets nerfed and the raid starts dropping healers (this always happens once progression is over) you can go Elemental. This is the selfless option but may well end up with you never getting to DPS.

2 - Refuse and stay Elemental. If your good enough they may take you and replace someone else and ask them to go healing, or you may be lucky and someone else will step up too the mark and go healing instead. This is the wishful thinking option, it may well end up with you getting no raid spots or even being removed from the guild.

3 - Leave the guild. By the sounds of it, I don't actually know the situation on Stormrage personally but it sounds similiar too my old server, if you leave your guild you may have to server/faction change. Depending on your financial situation this could or could not be a problem. Assuming its not an option and there is no other guild that fits your needs on your server you will need to way up the downsides of Option 1 compared to the possible risks. Assuming it is an option you might want to either go right ahead and do it now before guilds start getting full clears (especially before HC modes launch) so that you are able to get into raids before rosters really solidify or you might want to take the risk and go with option 2 then fall back on this if that doesn't work out.

In the end, its very much a personal situation. There is no right answer with things like this. It 100% depends on your raid leader, your guild mates and above all on you.

If you don't like healing, then don't heal. No point in doing something you don't enjoy when this afterall a game for entertainment.
That being said, don't expect to raid with that guild if all they need is a healer. So you got 3 options:

1) Stay with them and hope that if they get a different healer, they'll consider letting you in as a dps (doesn't sound like they need more dps...so a bit of a long shot) - You can be a bench dps for when people are missing or join in on alt raids.

2) Join a different guild that will let you raid as a dps.

3) Or, if your desire to raid is greater than your dislike of healing/disappointment of not dps'ing: switch to resto and raid.

You could just bite the bullet and do what's better for the raid. Earning you respect in the guild. Or, try to find a new guild and start over from scratch.

I joined a new guild right at the end of Wotlk, when we started raiding in cata I was the ONLY shaman in the guild. Needless to say I was asked to heal. It wasn't that bad, In a pretty short amount of time I had full raid gear for all 3 specs before we ever even got a shaman app on the forum. I dps'd heroics and such until we got enough healers, or didn't depend so hard on things like mana tide and then I got to be dps for the rest of the expansion (which actually wasn't but a few months because I went casual)

Point is, if you really like your guild, then Heal. If you don't really care about your guild and just want to raid as dps, join another one.

Honestly I wouldn't put up with being a full time healer unless the guild I was in was at least top 100 us, and actually making good progress in raiding. Otherwise your going to be doing something you don't like, with a bunch of people that wouldn't be able to handle the raid difficulty. Which can lead to you quitting the game from rage or depression.

I healed heroic DW the last week of Cata and it was alright, but I only like healing dungeons. Raid healing is too stressful for me. I'd rather stay elemental. I have a fairly understanding guild though. Play what you want to play, that's our motto...Ok not really, but we aren't forced to do anything. It's great. Finally an understanding guild.

One of the chief advantages that hybrids have over pure classes is that we can play multiple roles, not just multiple variations of a single role. That doesn't mean you should be required to swap to Resto, but like Undefetter and Keiyra said, you essentially have three choices;

1> Suck it up, go Resto for the guaranteed raid slot, make sure they know you would rather play Elemental so they can hopefully recruit a healer and you can move to DPS when a spot opens up.

2> Stick to your guns, stay Elemental, and be comfortable being benched when they only have a healer slot open.

3> Find a guild that actually needs an Elemental Shaman player.

FWIW, I'm one of the officers for my guild, and I hate healing, and I get asked to swap to heals pretty regularly. If it means our raid runs that night, I'd rather swap specs and run as resto than have us not run at all.

I'm one of the officers for my guild, and I hate healing, and I get asked to swap to heals pretty regularly. If it means our raid runs that night, I'd rather swap specs and run as resto than have us not run at all.

Pretty much this. I get slightly annoyed at some of the guildies when they poke fun that im the heal bitch, but I know it's light hearted, and they usually thank me for healing afterwards so that we could actually raid that evening.

So... you can go resto and raid, or stay elemental and wait (or not raid)? Seems like a pretty clear decision to me, answer this: How important is raiding to you? If it's not that important to raid then stay elemental; if it's important to you, then go resto for it (while making it clear you don't prefer resto, going so far as wanting elemental loot and only taking resto loot when it was between you and shard.) Raids are a team effort, if everyone doesn't pitch in then your wasting everyone's time. Either work for the team or don't raid, simple.

This is partly the reason I am looking to leave my current guild. I did this all last expansion rerolled to fit roles to help the raid group going from a enh shaman at start to resto to a dk tank to a holy paladin. I have decided I don't enjoy it and that I am going to do what I am good at and enjoy it, because when i dps i am generally fighting for top spots in this expansion as ele and I really don't want to heal. I have been in this guild for over a year and half all very good friends but why do it if you don't enjoy it.

I fell into this trap in cataclysm. Its a hole that I've seen many DPS hybrids get thrown into, and rarely do they ever crawl out. I didn't crawl out, I was stuck being resto and was completely burnt out and quit the game before 4.2. Its also a very ugly situation when it comes to loot. You end up in a position where you are pressured to pass up DPS upgrades because you "mostly heal".

I wouldn't do it if I were you, and there is absolutely no reason to feel bad about it.

I fell into this trap in cataclysm. Its a hole that I've seen many DPS hybrids get thrown into, and rarely do they ever crawl out. I didn't crawl out, I was stuck being resto and was completely burnt out and quit the game before 4.2. Its also a very ugly situation when it comes to loot. You end up in a position where you are pressured to pass up DPS upgrades because you "mostly heal".

I wouldn't do it if I were you, and there is absolutely no reason to feel bad about it.

Simple solution; find a guild that has you declare a "main spec". All gear you get is based on the spec you DECLARED, not the one you're currently playing. This declaration is made by you, not the guild leadership. You won't get the same priority on healing trinkets as the "true" healers, but you won't be screwed out of your main spec's gear, either.

I can only say what I would do: Either they take me as the spec I wanna play, or I'd look elsewhere.

Wow is to the largest part a cooperative game, so being supportive is a nice thing to be BUT I would never play a game or play it in a way I dont prefer it to just to make others happy.

As you said it is your money paid, so it's your choice what to do. IMO if your RL knows you're gold as a dps and asks you to go heal permanently anyway, he's probably not that good of a RL. People should play to their strenghts.

Originally Posted by Angoth

I'm sorry that Blizzard won't just gift wrap awesome in a cup and let you drink your fill.